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In an effort to encourage use of public transportation, officials are doing away with free parking near the National Mall in several months. (Published Monday, Jan 27, 2014)

Updated at 9:21 PM EDT on Monday, Jan 27, 2014

In an effort to encourage use of public transportation, officials are doing away with free parking near the National Mall in several months.

The vast majority of D.C. streets are controlled by the D.C. government, where drivers pay $2 per hour to park. Now, the National Park Service has planned to install its own parking meters on roads controlled by the federal government.

One-thousand spaces will be metered on various roads from Constitution Avenue by the White House to the lot at the Tidal Basin and many, many more. The meters will be similar to the ones used by the District and will also cost $2 per hour.

"They keep taking more and more away from us," one Prince George's County resident said. "I pay taxes for this parking and I'm 79 years old."

The Park Service says they're installing the meters for several reasons; encouraging use of public transit and other alternative transportation modes, using parking revenue to amp up visitor experiences and managing the public parking turnover to allow more access to more people.

"I could complain, but I think it makes sense," Gainesville resident Lindsay Porter said. "I was just saying how nice it was to park by the White House and just go, but I certainly understand where it's coming from."

One big difference between the Park Service's future meters and the ones you see on a regular basis in the D.C. area is that NPS is considering making people pay on holidays and Sundays.